Series Of Unfortunate Events

Ok, so my friday started out good getting ready to go out to lunch with my sister in-laws and my mother in-law and on my way to the Jordan Landing area I saw this truck half way over the cement median!! I didn't even think this was possible. I took the picture with my phone, and yes I was driving, but I kept my eyes on the road and just hoped I got the picture. I should have known that it was just an omen as to what was going to follow that day.



So lunch was great and it is always good sit, chat and stuff your face with food. After lunch I went to a few stores in the area and by the time I was at my second storm a huge snow storm started. At least an inch or two fell and was on my car just while I was in the store. I wanted to shop more but not in this area so I drove to Target and when I was pulling in, a car that was turning, or trying to turn, into the Target parking lot was going to fast and slammed into the car trying to turn left out of the parking lot. I thought to myself, I am not going to turn left (even though I needed to) cause I know that people just don't think when it starts snowing. So when I was leaving I decided to turn right onto Redwood Rd. and then turn left onto 7200 So. (just a round about way to my parents house) and sure enough when I was in the right turning lane FOUR cars slid right into the left turning lane but at least no one else got hit. Few! ..... at least I dodged these accidents.

Alright, so at this point I am at my parents house changing into my lovely work clothes and thought that I should leave an hour before my shift starts just to give me enough time to get to work cause the roads were crappy. So I left at 4 and I get on I-215 and the roads are so slick. I was white knuckling it the whole way and only going about 20 MPH. People were flying by me but every time I started to go fast my tires started spinning out and doing the fish tail thing. I was almost to the airport exit but decided to get off at California Ave so people weren't riding my butt. BIG MISTAKE!!! I was on California Ave for 45 min just to get to Bangerter Hwy. So needless to say I was 40 min late for work, not good.

Now I am at work and there were like two airplanes in the E-gates but yet we all had to be out there for when the planes come in. I know most of you don't know what I am talking about so I'll try to make sense. There are three different banks in the work day. The first is from 7 am to noon, then noon to 5 pm and then 5pm to 10 pm. Well we were still getting planes from the 2nd bank at 7:30 pm. Planes that were supposed to be there at 1 in the afternoon were just getting in. So I knew this was going to be a long night cause it is just a ripple effect once one plane is late. Ya, I didn't get to leave work until 2:30 AM!!! The only good thing is that I love the people I work with and we were having fun ALL night long trying to figure out what planes we still had to do and when they were all coming in. It was a total disaster but we were all so tired that everything was funny so we were just laughing most of the night. Let me just say, I am so glad I transferred from customer service out to the ramp cause I did not want to be inside with the hundreds of cranky people.

At the end of our shift when we were walking out there were so many people just sleeping against the walls in the airport. One lady tipped chairs over to cover her suitcase to try and "prevent" someone from stealing it and also tipped another one over to put her head under. I was trying to take pictures with my phone but I was walking while taking the pictures and so they were all blurry.

All in all, I made it to work in one piece and avoided several accidents. And I actually do love to work out in the snow, it makes things interesting. Well, that was my Friday, how was yours?

A year later

So it's officially been one year (on Dec. 11th) since I had my heart surgery and everything has gone perfect! Which means it's been one year that Jason and I have been trying to have a family. I never thought that trying to have a baby would take so long. I mean, I don't mind the work but it gets a little frustrating with the "wait and see" all the time. Since my miscarriage (in July) I have only had two cycles, and one of them was because I had to take a pill to get me started. Just this past Monday I got my blood tested to see if I am even ovulating and to check my thyroid levels. Well I totally thought that I had hypothyroidism because it seems like I have almost all the symptoms, but I just got the results today and the nurse said my thyroid levels were normal. Oh and she said that she thinks that we tested to early. So I don't have an answer as to why this is taking so long and we are in another "wait and see" mode. I know that Gods timing is better than ours but man, I am starting to get really impatient! Which I guess will make it that much more special when a little one finally comes into our lives. Well anyway, just thought I'd let you all know what is goin' on with me and what I have been thinking about lately.

Happy Birthday to......

ME! And my MOM and my AUNT! Yes I was born on my mothers birthday and seeing that she is a TWIN, I also share my birthday with my aunt!! Happy Birthday Mom and Chris! I love you tons!

So I turned the big 25! It's crazy and I don't feel like I'm that old. Okay, it's not old but time has just flown by and it still feels like I'm 23. So today we just took our time getting ready for the day (which I do everyday) and we went over to my parents house to celebrate with my sweet mom. After that Jason and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and then he took me iceskating :) It was so fun and I haven't been for awhile. I forgot how much the rental skates hurt my feet but it was still good times. Jason is a really good skater as well so we played tag and he would try to check me into the wall as if he were playing hockey. We then came home and made a ginger bread house! Yay! It was a really good, realaxing day.

A few updates

I know I have been so horrible at updating lately and it doesn't make it any better that I have a ton to say cause it just makes me not want to update at all!! ANYWAY-
I never posted about our anniversary trip. We were planning to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico but in the wonderful world of standby flying we couldn't even make the flight to LA! So on the turn of a dime Jason and I decided to head down to the Button cabin and spend the night then drive down to Mesa Verde and back to Salt Lake the next day. We then flew to Seattle and spent three days there. It was short but a blast. Jason served his mission there so he showed me some of the places he served and introduced me to a couple he taught the gospel to! (their friends are the ones who baptized them). While there we were able to see Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. Washington state is so beautiful and green I love it!

About a week later, Jason had to go down to Phoenix for a week to conduct some trainings for his job so I tagged along with him. The trip was pretty much free, we just had to pay for my food cause everything else was covered by Discover Card. It was the week before Thanksgiving and it was 80 degrees! So nice! I just got to be lazy and do as I please while Jason worked and then we would go out to dinner. We even ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, it was pretty good but I don't feel very comfortable in those fancy restaurants.

The next week was the week of Thanksgiving and my cute sister along with her cute family drove from Omaha, NE to be with the fam. So it was a crazy week trying to steal time with her cause EVERYONE wants to be with them while there here and there is just never enough time. They just need to move back to SLC when Jared is done with Oral Surgery. This year we had Thanksgiving at my sister Natalie's house and it turned out really well. We had lots of yummy food and just enjoyed each other's company. We also went out to our Thanksgiving movie and saw James Bond. It was good but I like Casino Royale a lot better.

Now we are into December and not much has happened except the fact that we had fabulous weather until last week when it started snowing. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the snow, but remember I work outside and with planes which means there are delayed flights and long nights for me. I actually don't mind working out in the snow cause of all the layers I can put on, it just makes it hard to jump in and out of the airplane when you can't really move. I always feel like the kid on "A Christmas Story"..... "I can't put my arms down!" If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's about time you watch that movie again.

Well that is about it for now. I will try to get a little slide show of pictures of the above mentioned but I wouldn't hold your breath cause it might take me a few days and I don't want to be responsible for anyone passing out!

Ummm.......

So I know that I have not been the best at updating the good 'ol blog and I have a lot to tell so just hang tight and in the next few days (hopefully) I will have a slew of new things to tell :)

**hApPy BiRtHdAy**

It was Jason's birthday today and he turned the big 30! I just want everyone to know how much I love him and that I appreciate everything he does for us. He is such a blessing in my life and I don't know what I would do without him. It turned out to be a really nice relaxing day! We got to go to my niece, Amelia's baptism this morning (she called him a couple days ago to ask if he would stand in the confirmation circle). Then we came home and opened presents and had his favorite chocolate cake from Costco (you know the five layer chocolate cake with chocolate chunks all around it) and just took it easy for awhile cause that is what he wanted to do. Then we went out to dinner at The Lonestar Steakhouse, it was actually pretty dang good. We were gonna go to the cornmaze but both decided that we were to full to go prancing through the corn stalks so we came home and played video games together for awhile and cuddled up to a movie. Jason doesn't really think anything of birthdays, so I tried to make it special in a low key type of way and let him choose what he wanted to do, otherwise I would have had events lined up all day :) I love you babe!

4th in 4th

Alright so I got tagged twice to post the 4th picture in my 4th folder, so here we go. If you know my husband, he is a jokester and he has a ton of these funny photos that are hilarious. With this particular picture, I remember that he sent it to me in an email at work (when we both worked at Discover Card) when I first met him. I don't think we had gone on a date yet so he was trying to win me over...... and it obviously worked. I guess we both have a twisted sense of humor.


I tag everyone that reads this blog. And if you have already done it, I'm gonna change things up a bit and say to post the 7th picture in your 7th folder. DUN DUN DUN!

What the.....

Ok, so I am trying to use Picasa to post my pictures from Hawaii and I uploaded them into Picasa and I tried to make a little movie clip or even just a collage of pictures and I must be stupid cause I don't know how to post it on the blog!! I'll keep tryin' but I might not get pictures up for awhile :) Plus I don't like how it uploads ALL of your pictures. It doesn't seem to let you manage folders very well. I just wanted to make a collage of pictures or a video. Am I making this more complicated than it needs to be?!

Long Over Due

I know, I know. I am totally slackin' on the posts as usual. But anyway, we were able to go to Hawaii a second time this year with some of Jason's family. His mom and dad went for two weeks to celebrate their anniversary and let us tag along for the last week. Jason's sister, Krista and her husband Kenny came along with us. We went back in September, so that just tells you how bad I am slackin. It was a great relaxing vacation that was so needed. (Not like we didn't just have one two weeks earlier to D.C.) Anyway, we did more of the same stuff but we had people with us so it was a totally different experience. We went snorkeling several times and we went over to the other side to see the Volcano National Park, which was way cool cause we got to see more activity than our other trips. We also went up to Waipio Valley with the Basque's and actually drove down into the valley. You have to have four wheel drive in order to get down there or you have to hike... But who hikes? Honestly. All eight of us were crammed in an Explorer or somethin like it. It wasn't that bad except that the back seat was raised so you couldn't really sit up straight or you'd hit the ceiling. In one of the condos we rented, there was a fishin' pole and so Jason and Kenny decided that they would go fishin' just in back of the complex. They didn't have much bait so we were trying all sorts of things from bread to avocado to all sorts of fruit. We found that mango works the best cause that is what was used for all four fish. Jason caught two and Kenny caught two so it was perfect. There was a really pretty one that Kenny caught and when Jason was gutting the fish it bit Jason and practically made him bleed!!! That sucker had a full set of teeth it was the craziest thing. Hawaii is just a great place to go to relax and have fun. Although I have never been to any of the other Islands, I really like the Big Island cause it's so laid back and there aren't very many tourists. Plus you have a variety of places to choose from. Maybe someday we'll try the other Islands but for now I'll stick with Kona. I know that I didn't include any pictures of flowers, I absolutely love Hawaiian flowers. I have so many pictures of flowers that I'll just have to do a random post of all the pictures of flowers. Alright, well this post is kinda just thrown together but I just wanted to get it on the blog :)

2-Years 2-Gether

So it was our two year anniversary on Monday, October 20! I am married to the most wonderful man ever! He is the best thing that has ever happened to me :) I just wanted to give a shout out to Jason telling him that I love him more than anything. The past two years have been so amazing and I treasure the relationship we share together. I am excited to be together forever and have our future unfold before us. I'm sure you all are a puddle with all this mushy stuff so I'll stop, but just know that my husband is the BEST!


We had originally planned to go to Puerto Vallarta for our anniversary but the flights were not looking good and we didn't want to get stuck in Mexico or any one of the other three stops we would've had to make to get there. So..... we decided, last minute, a couple other places we wanted to go but I'll write more about that in a different post. Speaking of different posts, I am way behind, so I'll try to get in gear and get things posted.

I'm so mad!!

Kay, so as I was getting pictures ready for the blog I noticed that all of my pictures were not downloaded. Jason and I both have a camera and so we were both taking pictures while in D.C. and my memory card still had pictures from Alaska on it. So when I went to download the pictures I only selected the pictures I wanted copied to the computer so I wouldn't have duplicates of Alaska and apparently I didn't select all of my pictures from D.C.!! I can't believe it. Thank goodness we had two cameras to get most of the pictures. Anyway, so there aren't as many pictures posted as I would have liked. Guess this means we will have to go back to D.C. sometime :) I need to get better about clearing my memory card after each trip so this doesn't happen again. ARRRRRGGGG!

Washingtion D.C. pictures

Washington D.C.

First I just want to say that the Alaska picture slide show thingy totally didn't turn out very well but I think it was because I was so frustrated that I had to do it again. Plus I didn't have all the pictures I wanted. But anyway it gives you at least an idea.

OK. This trip was pretty much a last minute decision but it was definitely a good one! If I haven't posted this already, Jason and I are trying to go to all 50 States together and so far we have gone to about 19. So this trip was to help accomplish that goal and to see our nations Capital. We left on Friday, August 29th and when we got there we got the rental car (which ended up being a Mustang of all cars) and drove right to D.C. from our hotel in Dulles. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Whitehouse the first day. I'll tell you one thing I don't like about D.C. is there is NO parking!!! It took us forever to figure out where to park and then when we finally found a place we walked forever and of course I didn't wear the best of shoes so my feet started to hurt. We probably walked three or four miles just to see the things I mentioned above. It was way cool though! Plus it was later at night like around 6:00 so there weren't that many people. I couldn't believe that it was dark by 8:00 pm but it was so some of our pictures didn't turn out as well as we hoped. The next day we basically did the same thing by going to downtown D.C. and looking at more of the sights. THERE IS SO MUCH TO SEE!!! We stopped at a couple of monuments before heading directly there like the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon and we tried to see Iwo Jima Monument but we couldn't get there cause of road closures even though we had our GPS. Anyway some of the other sites we saw were the Library of Congress, the National Archives (we actually went in the building on Monday) and the Air and Space Museum (I think that is what it was called). On Sunday we drove up to Gettysburg, PA to see, well....Gettysburg! That was pretty cool but the best part was the museum that had actual artifacts and clothing of the confederates and the union soldiers. The whole National Park was huge and went throughout the town and had over 1,300 monuments. Obviously we didn't stop at each one cause we would have been there for a week. But they also had some actors that were dressed like the soldiers and they fired off some cannons (of course not with cannon balls). It was a really cool experience and made me that much more proud of our country and of course extremely grateful for what they were fighting for. On the way back we stopped at the Antietam National Park where there was another battle and it was the bloodiest day in history. 23,000 people died in one day of battle here. Then Monday we went back to downtown D.C. and looked at more, yes, more monuments and memorials like the Roosevelt memorial, Jefferson memorial, we went back to the Lincoln Memorial to get better pictures and then we went inside the National Archives museum to see the actual Declaration of Independence the Constitution and other actual documents. All I could think of while we were there was the movie "National Treasure." It was really cool though. The pictures that I will post are really dark cause you can't have any flash photography in the room cause it will destroy the preservation of the documents. After that we had to head to the airport to come home. All in all it was an awesome trip. Of course I would have liked more time but it was fun to just get away for a weekend. I would definitely recommend going there someday when you get the chance. Lastly I just want to say that I love my job cause of the benefits it gives us and the opportunities to see the country and hopefully the world!!!

Alaska Pictures

Coming soon!

Ok so I know I don't have a slidshow of our Alaska trip and now I need to add pictures of our D.C. trip so I am falling way behind. But in all fairness to me I pretty much had the Alaska slideshow complete and then our computer started to go really slow and I lost it somehow..... I was so mad. Now I just haven't taken the time to do it again. I will try to get everything updated by tomorrow but no promises :)

ALASKA

Alaska is amazing! That is all I have to say. It is not what you think it is (i.e: huge, vast, cold, small little towns)..... It is one of the most prettiest places I have ever seen. It is totally opposite of that. There are so many mountains that are so green with dark grey rocks and snow capped mountains. The lakes and rivers are an amazing deep aqua blue-green. It is simply indescribable. First I'll start by letting you know who all went. Of course Jason and I, thn his parents John and Leslie and his two brothers Jared and Ryan. (Their wives stayed home with the kids, bless their hearts). As you know, we fly standby since I work for the airlines, so we constantly have to check if the flights look good and if there will be space available. Well the flights up there were totally open and we ALL got first class. It was so nice to be able to choose our own movies, sit in nice leather seats with room to spare and actually have real plates, glasses and silverware to eat with. It sure does make a five hour flight go by so much faster. Anyway we got to Fairbanks at 11:58 pm and it was still light outside. It's like how it is here just after the sun goes down and it stays that way pretty much all night. It would only get dark for a couple hours a night. Well we got to our hotel and we were able to get a great deal since we snuck all six of us in one room every night. Jared and Ryan brought air mattresses and the rest of us slept on the beds. The first day we went to North Pole to visit Santa Claus house and it is so cute. (Sadly, we found out a few days after we got back home that Mrs. Claus had passed away). They have a Mr. and Mrs. Claus there five days a week so that the kids can go sit on his lap and take a picture. Around the store they have all these letters from kids posted on the walls and of course they have tons of Christmas decorations everywhere. The other cool thing is that they have these pre-written letters for good kids, bad kids, naughty adults and so on and you can send them from the store cause it will have a North Pole mail stamp. Those letters cost about $10 so we bagged that idea. After that we went to pan for gold at a real working gold mine. It was actually pretty cool and you do get gold fever but I think Ryan got it the worst. He was always thinking of places we could pan for gold and even bought bags of pay dirt to pan for gold back home. You seriously only get like a few flakes but it still gets you. We all had a lot of fun with that. Then we went to a place called Pioneer Park which just had a bunch of display type things like an airplane exhibit, Eskimo exhibits, paddle boat stuff..... needless to say it was pretty cool even though it doesn't sound so cool. Then at night we went and saw The Dark Knight and it was really good! I was pleasantly suprised. I thought it was going to be a lot darker than it was but it definately is not a kid friendly show. The next day we drove two hours down to Denali National Park area, bought our tour bus tickets for the next day and looked around for a bit. We then drove to our hotel which was an hour and a half south of DNP. The next day we went on a tour through DNP on the tour bus cause they only allow cars to drive about 15 miles into the park. The tour was eight hours total, four hours in and four hours out. It was way cool though. We got to see a couple of wolves, coyote, caribou, three bears and a moose. It was kinda rainy so the windows on the bus kept getting muddy so we'd move the windows down and clean them off with a paper towel. Oh it was actually pretty cold that day, well it was in the lower 60's but it felt cold compared to the 100 degree weather we had been used to. So the tour pretty much took most of the day and when we were done we browsed in some shops and ate dinner then drove back down to the hotel. The next day we had our whale watching and glacier cruise at 11 am and according to our GPS it said it was going to take about 7 hours to get down to seward so we all woke up at 3 am and left at 3:3o am. My husband and Jared were the drivers for the whole trip so thank you for being able to stay awake and get us there safely while the rest of us slept. Also thank you rock stars for having enough kick to keep them awake. Well needless to say it only took us about 4 and a half to 5 hours to get there so we had some time before our cruise left. We decided to go check in our hotel, the Kenai Princess Lodge, early so all our crap wasn't left in the car. When we get there the view was spectacular and it was a really nice hotel. We found out that it was the exact hotel where the girl from Utah got attacked by a bear just a week before we got there!!! They had signs up all over the place saying to walk in groups and make loud noises so you don't startle the bears (which is what they think happened to the girl from Utah). She was just walking up a trail and was about 20 yards from the hotel when the bear attacked. Her jaw was broken and part of her scalp was ripped off plus bite marks in her arms and legs. She is ok but has obviously had lots of surgeries to make her better. Anyway, we were all fine and no bear attacks so everything was good. Our whale watching/glacier cruise was awesome! We saw a couple whales jump out of the water and also got to see a huge piece of the glacier fall off. The sound is incredible! You all should try to go to Alaska sometime even if it's to only see the glaciers. The cruise was about 5 hours long and we got to see a lot of amazing views along with wildlife. After the cruise we got a bite to eat and then kicked it at the hotel. This whole trip was pretty much non-stop whether it was looking at things or driving in the car to get to places so we all just wanted to relax. The following day we went to the Seward Sealife center, which is pretty much like an aquarium and then later that night we went deep sea fishing. All the boys fished while Leslie and I watched and took pictures. It was so much fun! Right when we got to the cove where they were starting to fish we saw a mother whale and her baby poking their backs and tales out of the water. One time the whale was like 5 feet from our boat when it flipped it's tail out. It was the coolest thing ever! Their tales are so beautiful! The other cool thing that we got to see was a bald eagle!!! One of the fish that someone caught was too small so they threw it back. Sometime when they throw the fish back they are in shock so they just kinda float on the water for a little bit and then swim off. Well this fishy took too long cause the bald eagle swooped down from a high cliff and swiped the fish up ten feet from our boat. They are such majestic birds it's so awesome. OH another thing that happened was that a lady that was fishing on the boat caught a puffin bird on her line. Her hook was 40 feet down in the water and it got snagged on the puffins wing. They can dive up to 100 feet down in the water to get their food and this one got caught on the hook. It was flapping around all over the place but the captain was able to get it off the hook and it was fine. All in all it was a pretty cool fishing trip and the 5 hours flew by. We didn't want to go! Between all the boys they caught over 20 fish! Way to go boys! When we got back to shore the captain and his deckhand filayed (sp) the fish and got them ready for us to take home. Mmmmm fish :) The next day we drove up to Anchorage and walked around town in all the shops. Anchorage is pretty civilized and is just like a regular city. I have to admit I didn't like it too much cause it wasn't as pretty as the other places. The next day was saturday and we had to make our way back up to Fairbanks to fly back home. Our flight didn't leave til 1:05 am on Sunday so we still had all day. But first we drove back down south a little bit to go to the Wildlife Conservation Center where it is kind of like a zoo but the animals have way more space to play. We saw a lot of elk, buffalo, carribou, black bears, grizzly bear, bald eagle, musk ox, coyote and black tailed deer. Then we drove back up to the Fairbanks area and saw The Mummy right before we had to head to the airport. The flight home was good but no one got first class. Needless to say we could still choose our movies for free and there were a few movies I wanted to watch so I didn't sleep but 45 min on the flight. Silly me. But I knew that we had all day Sunday to kick back and I also had all day Monday to recoup and get back in the groove of things. This trip was definately needed after the news we found out a week before we left. Alaska is beautiful and I certainly want to go back again someday. Sorry about the long post but there was so much to say and I still didn't even say everything. Hopefully you'll enjoy the pictures but know that the pictures don't do it justice.

Up's and Down's

Obviously I haven't posted a new blog for quite sometime but we hit a rough patch in our lives that was pretty devastating. I guess I will just start from the top....

So June 19th I decided to take a pregnancy test cause it had been over 50 days since my last period and low and behold it finally said POSITIVE!!! I was so excited so I called the doc and got an appointment on July 7 which what was supposed to be 10 weeks pregnant. At the office he did an ultra sound and said there was no way the baby was ten weeks cause the baby was only measuring about six weeks. He couldn't find a heart beat but said that this early it's not that uncommon so we went to have a sonogram (sp) cause it is a better machine. The nurse found a heart beat right off the bat. RELIEF!! We got a picture of the little tiny baby the size of a dot and went to the room while the doc looked over the pictures. He came in and said that the sac was only measuring 5 weeks 2 days while the baby was measuring 6 weeks 3 days. He said he wasn't too concerned cause it was only a matter of millimeters that the growth was off. So he said for me to come back in 10 days to check the growth of everything. 10 days came and back to the doctors office we went....... only this time the news wasn't so good. The nurse started the ultrasound and found blood in my uterus right off. She didn't seem to concerned at first but then she couldn't find a heartbeat at all. The sac was still only measuring 5 weeks 2 days where the baby had grown to 7 weeks 5 days. SHOCK hit me and I didn't think that it was really happening. I didn't really have any emotion running through me and I didn't know what to think. It was truly an out of body experience. I thought they would just take me to a different room and tell me what needed to be done to fix this. Well the nurse brought us back to the room (mind you my doctor didn't even work that day so this is a different nurse telling us this) and as soon as she left the floodgates of reality opened. I couldn't stop crying and wondering why I had to have a miscarriage. She told me the options of what could be done to get the baby out of my body and I chose to take a pill that helps get things moving. It was the worst pain in my life. I had never imagined that I would have to cramp so bad to release something that was still so small. I cried all day that day that I couldn't even cry the next day or all weekend. It was a long weekend but my sweet husband was always by my side comforting me. He was so patient with me and always wanted to help even though there was nothing he could do to get rid of the pain. We had our long talks and had a peace come over us that everything was going to be fine and that everything happens for a reason. My doctor had told me that 1 out of 4 pregnancies is a miscarriage and that if anything goes wrong with the growth of the baby the body will just reject it and cut everything off from the baby. So I got to thinking that I needed to count my blessings that this happened so early in the pregnancy and that we didn't have anything happen later on or have a baby that is not healthy. We knew we couldn't do anything to change this so we both accepted the loss and have tried to move on. We will never forget this experience, which will only make the next baby that much more special to us knowing just how fragile life is.



Jason and I along with his mom and dad and his two brothers were to leave for Alaska the following week after we found out the bad news. They all asked me if I still wanted to go and I couldn't think of a better time to have a vacation. It was truly a blessing that we planned a trip for the 25th of July because Alaska is so beautiful and amazing. It is probably one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. It was so nice to be so close with Gods creations just after having to go through a devastating time. I was so humbled at the sight of the enormous mountains and aqua colored lakes and rivers. Not to mention all of the wildlife that was seen..... But that will have to wait for a different day. I need to get our pictures downloaded and then I will tell you about our trip.

Check out my Slide Show!

Kentucky

Let me first start by saying that I LOVE KENTUCKY! It is so beautiful there! It is amazingly green everywhere you go and there are these amazing rock walls along the freeways. I guess the only thing I would change there is to bring our mountains there. Jason and I went to Crestwood, Kentucky about mid May for ten days. Jason's parents were also there because his dad grew up in Kentucky and was visiting his parents. Oh my goodness, Jason's grandparents are so adorable. I could sit and listen to their conversations all day long with there cute southern accents. They share such a wonderful relationship with each other and live each day to the fullest. I love listening to their stories and walking around on the farm. I'd try to imagine what it was like when things were still up and running. His grandparents own over 300 acres of farmland and it's amazing. Well, we got there on a Friday and the next day we went to the Louisville Temple. All of Grandpa and Grandma's kids were there plus most of their spouses. Jason and I were the only grandkids. It was a surprise for Grandpa and Grandma to have all of their children in the Temple with them, it was really special. Afterward, we all went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch/dinner and it was really good. Then Sunday we went to church and just hung around the farm all day talking story with one another. Monday, Jason and I went to Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby took place just a week before we got there. It was pretty cool, but I don't think I could ever get into horse racing. We also visited the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory, which was pretty cool as well. Then we drove over into Indiana (so that we can say we have been there) and drove back. Tuesday, Jason and I and his parents drove down to southern Kentucky to the Cumberland Gap (where Daniel Boone came through). We were able to visit Tennessee and Virginia on this drive cause the point where all three states meet is in the Cumberland Gap. We spent the night in a hotel then Wednesday, we went to Cumberland Falls, however, the park was closed cause on Sunday a tornado had touched down in the park and tore down a lot of trees. So we decided to go over to the other side where there was another water fall called Eagle Falls. It was so pretty! We had to hike about a mile and a half in the rain to get to it but it was so worth it. Jason and I had fun climbing on the rocks to get underneath the waterfall. Then on the way back up to Crestwood, we stopped at a few other historical sites, which were cool to see. Oh, I have to mention that when we were hiking around Cumberland Gap and Eagle Falls, I was so infatuated with all of the different kind of leaves and flowers, so I started this little leaf collection with Jason's mom. It was actually pretty fun and we found some pretty cool leaves. We both bought a notebook to dry all of our leaves and flowers. Jason and his dad had patience with us when we would stop at every tree, but I know they thought we were nuts! The rest of the week we just kinda hung out and had fun. We played this game "Skittle" where you turn a top and it has to go through "doors" to knock down pins that were worth different amounts of points. I don't know if that makes sense but it was really fun. We also played lawn darts, which is really fun. I won every time I played Jason! We also went on a frog leg hunt..... Jason really wanted to try frog legs while we were there so we used our GPS thing to find this restaurant that sold frog legs. Well, three different locations came up on the GPS so we decided that we would try the closest one. Ya, no luck, it wasn't there. So we tried the second closest only to find the same problem.... it wasn't there. So we finally went to the location that was originally the furthest away (only by a couple of miles, mind you) and we found it! So moral of the story, we should've just gone to the furthest away location cause by the time we drove to all the other locations we could've been there and back! But the drive was nice and just being with one another is time well spent :) Friday we went up to Cincinnati to the Gap outlet and got some killer deals. I got 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 5 undershirts (tank tops) and a belt for $45! Awesome deals! We were set to leave back for Utah on Sunday afternoon, but the flights filled up and there wasn't a very good chance for us to get on the plane. So we decided that we would try for the 9:00 pm flight cause there were several seats still open and not very many standbys listed. Right before we left Crestwood, we checked the flight again and there were more standbys listed from the earlier flights. Jason and I were number 12 and 13 on the list out of 25'ish. Things weren't looking to good but then they started clearing people.... and wouldn't you know they cleared only 11 people!!! They stopped right in front of us!! So we spent the night in Cincinnati to try for the 6:15 am flight. The good news is Delta actually paid for our hotel, which was totally unexpected cause they usually don't do that for non-rev's. It was a really nice hotel and well worth it cause we made the morning flight with flying colors! Oh the joys of flying standby! At least it's free right! All in all we both enjoyed our visit and didn't want to leave. Which means we will just have to go back and visit again sometime soon!

Women's Conference

Ok, so I know that Women's conference was over a month ago, but in all fairness I was waiting for pics to be emailed to me to post on the blog. Women's Conference was awesome! I was able to go with my sister Natalie, my mom and two of my sister-in-laws, Jen and Krista. I wish I would've gone both days. There were so many good things said and the feeling there was incredible, I didn't want to leave. It is amazing how many women show up. The spirit was so strong in every class and then especially when President Monson spoke at the closing meeting. I loved when we sung hymns because you could just hear all these women's voices and it was almost as if angels were singing. So, if you have never been to Women's Conference, you should definitely go next year. Plus, they have all these BYU Bookstore tents set up and they sell really cool things. This year there were these bags that were only $3.99! They are really cute so I bought four :) The funny thing is, I see them all around town and it is cool to think that we both went to Women's Conference to enjoy the awesome messages.

It's Amazing!!

Ok so kind of a lot has happened lately that I want to put on the blog, but I don't want to do it right now. But I just noticed something kinda funny.... Not that I have a ton of posts, but I noticed that everyone of my posts was done on a Tuesday!?!? Kinda weird and totally not done on purpose. But I just thought that I would share my strange discovery with everyone.................. So I think that it's amazing that I actually posted something on a day other than a Tuesday. I know, I'm a dork :)

I Want One!

Ok so I have come to the conclusion that I am not so good at keeping this thing updated. I guess I just don't know what to write since it's only me and Jason. We really don't have boring lives I promise. But anyway..... I think that everyone and their dog is having a baby but me. I am not trying to imply anything I just think that it is funny that so many people are having babies. It just seems like the thing to do I guess. My sister-in-law, Brooke, just had a cute little boy last week, one of my best friends, Brittany, had her little boy about two weeks ago, both of my sisters are pregnant and one of my other really good friends, Julie, is pregnant as well. I never really thought about that having a baby would take so much planning. You see the way I look at it now, is that now would be the prime time to have a baby cause he/she would have so many little friends to play with that would be about the same age. But apparently I don't think of these things 'til it's too late. Well I guess it's not too late, but ya....... So needless to say, I WANT ONE TOO! But I guess we will just have to see how things roll out :) Time will only tell.

On another note, I have been into listening to stand up comedy like Bill Engvall and Bill Cosby. I know I'm a dork for liking it so much, but when you have to drive 45 min to and from work almost everyday, the drive gets a little old and you start to hear the same songs on the radio over and over. So anyway, yesterday I was in my car listening to Bill Engvall (15 degrees off cool) and was laughing almost the whole time. ( I can imagine what the people next to be must have been thinking since I am in the care by myself and laughing). Well, he starts talking about "hurting gas" and I started rolling with laughter. It got to the point where my eyes were totally watering and I had to turn it off cause I couldn't see anymore or stop laughing. I know that I am totally immature cause I still get a kick when someone farts (even when it's myself) or when someone just talks about it. I have decided that the funniest things in life are the things that happen everyday that you don't really think are funny until someone talks about it, cause secretly you think you are the only one that thinks about those things. (whew!) You should really listen to the whole routine cause it is so funny. I love to laugh and get in those moods where everything is funny. It's great. So anyway, if you are in a bad mood you should look them up and listen to some of their routines or just watch the Blue Collar Comedy tour or Bill Cosby Himself. Ok, so this is definately and interesting post, but it was fun none the less. (So, I tried to post a sound clip of "hurting gas" but I don't know how. But you should definately look it up, it's hilarious!)

Holy Smokes!!

Ok, so I haven't been so good at updating my blog and I think it's because I am still trying to figure things out. But I am slowly getting the hang of things (I think!). As you can tell the slide show is of when we went to Florida in Oct. '07 and then Hawaii Jan. '08 (there are actually a few pics from Hawaii in Jan. '07). It took me long enough to get a slide show going, but it is finally here. YAY!

Anyway, the past few weeks have been great! Jason and I took our own separate trips mid March. I went to Omaha, Nebraska with my mom to see my sister Nicole and her cute family and Jason went with his brothers to Kentucky to see his cute grandparents. We both had a really good time even though we were away from each other. Jason took it easy most of the time just visiting family but he was also able to go to Mammoth caves and the corvette museum. They did a few other things of course but mainly had fun just hangin' with the guys. I on the other hand, got to spend time with my adorable nieces, Emma and Maeley. I really wish they lived in Utah. We had lots of fun shopping and we also got to see Horton Hears A Who, which is a really cute movie. The little girls loved it and so did I! Emma and Maeley both have the cutest little personalities! I learned that Emma likes to "bake cakes" (which are actually letters from a wooden puzzle) and while she is cooking she puts on her moms fake glasses, they must be her cooking glasses. And Maeley loves to sing her dolly's to sleep. One day we were all in Nicole's room doin' stuff on the computer and Maeley was in her room with the door closed just belting out part of the words to Mary's lullaby, "Lullaby my little one". It was the cutest thing ever! It was really good to see them and hopefully I will be able to get back there soon. Well, other than that life has been normal and wonderful! Jason and I have taken up the sport/hobby of Guitar Hero........ but that's a different story!

Check out my Slide Show!

Hawaii 2008

Some of you may know that Jason and I were able to go to Hawaii again this January for about ten days! I think I like this tradition of going to Hawaii every year in January. It sure makes the winter a little more tolerable. Anyway, I know that February is now coming to an end but I just thought that it would be fun to share a few things that happened on our vacation.

We left January 13 to go to Kona, Hawaii on the big islan. I absolutely love it there :) It is so laid back and relaxed which is what I'm all about. Jason's grandparents had served a mission on the Big Island and met a wonderful family that we still keep in contact with. So we like to go to that island to visit the Basque's and also enjoy paradise. While we were there we snorkeled almost everyday. I am kinda freaked out of the water so I don't go for long, but I do enjoy it when I just don't think about big fish or being swept out to sea. The first time I went last year I got slammed into lava rock by a wave as we were coming back into shore so now I am permanently scared of the rocks whether it's coral or lava rock. So when we start to get to a shallow area I am swimming for my life to get to a deeper area away from the rocks and coral. I kind of also have an issue with the turtles. They are so adorable..... when they are at least 12 feet away, but once they start getting closer I freak out and blow air into my goggles, which then makes it so I can't see. I am sure all the people around me and even those watching from the shore get a kick out of me freaking out in the water.

Jason and I love to take road trips so we would select a waterfall from our navigation thing and just drive. While we were on our way up to Polulu Valley, we could see Humpback Whales jumping out of the ocean. It was definately an awesome sight to see. Polulu Valley is at the north part of the island and it is so beautiful. There is a black sand beach and a river that flows into the ocean. If you want to get close to the water it's about a 20 minute hike down but well worth it. It looked like something out of a book or fairytale. We then went on the other side of Polulu Valley to Waipio Valley where the filmed Waterworld. When we got there we found out that if you want to go down by the water on that side, you either had to hike for about 45 minutes or have four-wheel drive to get down. Since we had just hiked down on the other side, we just enjoyed the view for awhile and left. We had also visited several waterfalls and just enjoyed the nice sunny 80 degree weather, On our way back to Kona, we went through the farmland, which is absolutely amazing. Very green rolling hills on one side and on the other side the green hills lead up to a mountain with snow on it where the observatory is. We decided that we came to Hawaii to get away from the snow, but one day we will drive up there to see the observatory and look and the stars.

Finally, another tradition that we have is to visit the farmers market that they have over the weekend and enjoy their exotic fruits. This year we tried a custard apple (not so good), passion fruit (very good), rumbatans (they look like spiny grapes and taste kinda like them too), apple bananas and of course pineapple. But we get our pineapple from Costco cause it was cheaper and we found out that most of the people at the farmers market would buy them from Costco anyway and then sell them for more money at the market.

Well, there really is more stories to tell but I don't want to write a novel. We are actually planning on going back to Hawaii this coming September with Jasons parents so we are certainly looking forward to that. Of course we have more trips planned in between, so I will keep ya'll updated. P.S. I don't know if spell check is working or not, so there may be a few mispelled words.

Hello!

Hey everyone! I decided that I needed to join the bloggers world in order to keep up with everyone.

I guess I'll start out with the low-down about Jason and I. First, we met while working together at Discover Card. We were on the same team and hit it off really quick. We thought we were being sneaky by making up stories that Jason was dating a "friend" of mine, but apparently people read right through it because seven months later when I came to work with a ring and told them I was engaged to Jason most just said, "I knew it!" However, there were some people that were shocked. We were then married in the Salt Lake Temple on October 20, 2006.

We bought a condo out in Eagle Mountain and have dealt with the long commute to anywhere we want to go. It really isn't that bad but it sure has made a dent in our wallets with all the gas we have to buy. Jason still works at Discover Card as a Customer Service Trainer and enjoys the perks and benefits of being on salary. I actually quit Discover Card (after three years) in July, 2006 and got a job with Skywest airlines as a gate agent. After three months of dealing with angry passengers I decided to transfer to a job more behind the scenes. So I now work in the Commisary/Provisions department which stocks the airplane with the snacks, drinks and other items the flight attendant requests. It is the most laid back job ever and I love it. I mostly sit in a truck or the break room all day chattin' with my friends while waiting for the airplanes in my zone to come in. Then it only takes all about ten minutes at most to commo the plane and BAM, I'm done. It is definately a great job to have especially because we get to fly for FREE!!! YES FREE! On Skywest flights as well as ANYWHERE DELTA flies :) I decided that I needed to go down the same path that my mom did and work somewhere that benefits me and Jas!

In our first year of marriage we were lucky enough to travel to quite a few places. Our first vacation together as a married couple was to Kona, Hawaii! Jason was so sweet and suprised with a ten day vacation to Hawaii for my Christmas present. It was my first time to Hawaii and it was a blast. I am a little freaked out when it comes to snorkeling, but none-the-less we had an amazing time. Later, we went to Kentucky to visit Jason's grandparents and it is so green and pretty there. I was ready to pack my bags and move there. For our first anniversary, we were planning to go to the Florida Keys, however, once we landed in Orlando we found out that the weather was not going to be so great so we stayed in Orlando and went to Sea World as well as Busch Gardens. It was really fun. We also like to take little road trips, so we also drove down to Moab, Utah to hike around on the rocks. While I was in training at Skywest, Jason was already taking advantage of the flight benefits and went to Alaska for a week to visit his mission companion and have fun in the wilderness. He also flew to San Francisco with his brothers to watch the first 49'ers game of the season.

On a more serious topic, I found out that I needed to have heart surgery last year. To explain, my heart would all of the sudden start to beat really really fast as if I just ran five miles and it would make me really light headed, almost to the point of passing out. The "episodes" if you will would only last about five minutes, wich would only occur once a month if that and after my heart would start beating normally again, it felt as if nothing ever happened. Well, one day it happened three times and that kind of freaked me out. So I started going to a cardiologist and had to wear a heart monitor so they could record what is going on when the "episode" happens. Needless to say, my heart got stage fright and I had to wear the monitor for three months to get two recordings. They finally decided that I had some cells in my heart that acted as a pacemaker and send signals to my heart to start beating even though it already was. The technical term for all this is Supraventricular Tachycardia. So the doctor said that I could either take a pill everyday for the rest of my life or have minor surgery to get rid of the heart palpitations. So obviously I opted for the surgery and had the surgery on December 11, 2006 at 5:00 AM! It was an outpatient surgery so I went home that night at about 7:00 PM. The recovery process was really quick, only a week and I was back at work out in the snow servicing the planes. It was great! Now everything is perfect with my heart and haven't had any more fast heartbeats that were unexpected!! HOORAY!

Well my friends, this post is entirely way to long but I just wanted to keep everyone updated since I am so horrible at making phone calls or writing letters. I guess we will see how often I actually update this blog and keep up with posting pictures and all that jazz. Until next time.....